TULANE TALK

April 11, 2003

Good Morning:

Have you ever noticed that Tulane alums are everywhere in the entertainment industry? This was obvious at the recent Academy Awards when Miramax executive Meryl Poster, a Newcomb graduate, was thanked by one of the Oscar recipients for her role as executive producer of the film “Chicago.”

Meryl is just the latest in a long list of our graduates who have made significant contributions to popular entertainment. Sanford Panitch, the production president of New Regency Productions (“L.A. Confidential,” “JFK,”) is also a Tulane alumnus, as is Scott Greenstein the former president of USA Films (“Traffic,” “One Night at McCool’s”) and screen writer Jonathan Hensleigh (“Armageddon,” “Die Hard”).

Before he produced such films as “Field of Dreams,” “Mystery Men” and “K-Pax,” Lawrence Gordon was a Tulane student. So was agent David Lonner, a partner in Endeavor Agency, whose clients include Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. Hollywood power couple Kevin Yorn, a major entertainment lawyer, and Julie Silverman-Yorn, whose clients have included Samuel L. Jackson, Dustin Hoffman and Minnie Driver, are also both Tulane graduates.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles I met with another one of our graduates, Cindy Cowan, whose company produced “Dr. T and the Women” and the upcoming “Scorched,” starring Woody Harrelson and Alicia Silverstone. The late Bruce Paltrow, producer, director and screenwriter (“St.Elsewhere,” “Duets,” “The White Shadow”) was another one of our own. He is also the father of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Tulane alumnus and director Jake Paltrow. Susannah Jeffers, legal counsel with Twentieth Century Fox Television, is another Tulane graduate, as is actress and model Paige Brooks (“Men in Black II”).

Now I feel like an Oscar recipient myself, nervous that I might forget someone. But, I’d like to add that we are also very proud to count among our alumni actor/producer Paul Michael Glaser of “Starsky and Hutch” fame, actor Harold Sylvester (“Uncommon Valor,” “An Officer and a Gentleman”) Broadway actor Bryan Batt, actress/writer Rebecca McFarland (“Seinfeld,” “Party of Five”), costume designer Steffani Lincecum and “Steel Magnolias” author Robert Harling.

Well, I hear the orchestra playing and the director is giving me the “wrap-it-up” sign so I better sign off. I just thought you’d be interested in learning of another way in which the graduates of Tulane are enriching the lives of us all. There must be something about this university and our location that breeds all this creativity and talent. For some lesser known but more important ways Tulane enriches lives, please visit the latest strategic plan update on our community outreach at http://www.tulane.edu/%7Estrplan/accomplishments.shtml.

This represents my most recent presentation to the University Senate regarding our accomplishments in the context of the university’s ten-year plan.

Have a great weekend,

TULANE TALK

March 28, 2003

Good Morning:

I recently updated the University Senate on the progress we have made in enhancing the educational experience at Tulane University. This, of course, is a central goal of our strategic plan. Please visit http://www.tulane.edu/%7Estrplan/strat_up_31003.ppt to see the achievements we have made in this most critical area.

On April 7, I will give another update to the University Senate. This update will focus on our efforts to enrich community life here in New Orleans. This is another area in which all of us can take pride. I know I felt proud last Saturday as I witnessed many Tulane students, faculty and staff lead volunteers from throughout the city in painting and refurbishing Charles J. Colton Junior High. As I told the crowd gathered there, our commitment to the community during this time of war and global unrest is more important now than ever before.

I also recently had a chance to meet with alumni and friends of Tulane in Florida. In all my recent travels throughout the country, I am pleased to say that, despite economic uncertainty at home and trouble abroad, our friends remain as close and as dedicated to Tulane as ever. Assurances like this should make us all hopeful for the future.

Have a great weekend,

TULANE TALK

March 20, 2003

Dear Tulane Community:

Now that the war with Iraq has begun I thought it was important that I write to you. This war will have many different meanings for various members of the university community. For our Tulane alumni, family and friends who have been deployed in support of this effort, the war will mean great sacrifice.

For our students, this war, the first of their adulthood, will offer vast and sometimes terrible lessons in life. For many of our international students, this war will be fought in and near areas they once, and perhaps hope to once again, call home. For all of us, this war will be a reminder of the dangerous world in which we live.

I think it is important, especially for our young people, to take heart, remain hopeful and remember that peace will return to us soon. In the meantime, we should support one another as best we can and approach our studies, research, outreach and community-building with a spirit and sense of purpose consistent with the times we face.

We will continue to closely monitor events around the world and locally to determine what additional steps, if any, we need to take to ensure the safety and security of the Tulane community. We will post and update information regarding university safety at http://emergency.tulane.edu. No updates merely indicates that there is no significant news to report.

The mission of Tulane University will continue throughout and beyond this war. May that mission help lead the way, one day, to lasting peace. In the meantime, let us pray for the safety of our soldiers and for a quick end to the war.

As always, we welcome your comments or suggestions, and are available to anyone needing special assistance during this stressful period.

TULANE TALK

March 7, 2003

Good Morning:

I want to invite all of you to a special event that will examine the ways in which the South continues to influence and define American culture. The event, Southern Roots, American Culture: A Conversation about Region and Identity, is the fourth installment of the Tulane University Presidential Symposium, an ongoing series in which the Tulane and New Orleans community discuss important research, ideas and issues. The symposium will take place March 13 at 4 p.m. in the Freeman Auditorium of the Woldenberg Art Center. The event is free and open to all.

The symposium’s panel will include:

William Christenberry, a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., and one of the most influential Southern artists working today. His photography, painting and sculpture has been exhibited in museums throughout the world. He currently teaches at the Corcoran College of Art and Design and is an artist-in-residence at Dartmouth College.

William Ferris, a native of Vicksburg, Miss., and an expert on blues music. His 1983 documentary “Mississippi Blues” was featured at the Cannes Film Festival. A recipient of the Charles Frankel Prize, the highest U.S. award in the humanities, Ferris is currently the Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Nick Spitzer is a professor of folklore and cultural conservation at the University of New Orleans and the producer and host of American Routes, a weekly two-hour Public Radio International program devoted to American music and culture from a Gulf South perspective. Spitzer also served as the first Louisiana State Folklorist, and as a senior folklife specialist at the Smithsonian Institution.

Noel Polk is a professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi and is considered to be the world’s leading authority on William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. He edited “Mississippi’s Piney Woods: A Human Perspective” and most recently has written “Outside the Southern Myth,” a personal narrative of growing up in Picayune, Miss.

Natasha Tretheway is an award-winning poet who grew up on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast and is now an associate professor of creative writing at Emory University. She is known for her brilliant historical poetry, which, while recreating lives from the past, initiates conversations about current culture. Her book “Domestic Work” won the Cave Canem Prize, the Pushcart Prize and the Lillian Smith Book Award.

You can read more about this Presidential Symposium and those we have held previously at http://www2.tulane.edu/president_symposium.cfm

As you can see this is quite an impressive panel. No doubt the discussion will be lively and engaging. I hope to see you (y’all) there.

Have a great weekend,